Walldogs tidbits

A collection of vignettes from the Walldogs Meet in Kewanee

Comment

By Mike Berry

Star Courier - Kewanee, IL

By Mike Berry

Posted Jul. 16, 2013 at 8:00 AM

By Mike Berry

Posted Jul. 16, 2013 at 8:00 AM

Kewanee

The Sandy’s mural on the side of the Peoples Cleaners building on West Second Street features a nighttime scene of a Sandy’s restaurant, a large cheeseburger and the thing that drew the most comments from onlookers: A large soft drink cup.

The cup, complete with the portrait of the Sandy’s girl and the company slogan, “Thrift and Swift,” is painted to appear rounded, like the real thing.

The cup is so realistic that many onlookers weren’t sure if it was really curved on the sides. It’s completely flat, but the artist was so skilled that people argued over how it was shaped.

People watching the painting of the Woodland Palace mural on the concrete slab near the Amtrak depot got a chance to paint their names on the sign.

For a $5 donation, people could paint their name, and they received a Walldogs T-shirt.

The names were eventually painted over, and are no longer visible.

There’s a dog in the mural of the Dreamland Theater on the side of the Parkside Apartments — but not just any dog,

The original scene, which includes the front of the theater and its owner and employees, included a dog in the foreground.

As the mural was being painted, an onlooker remarked that the dog resembled Queenie, the pet of the Summers family that once owned the Parkside. So the artist painted the name “Queenie” on the dog’s collar.

The Walldogs artists were happy to let people help paint the murals, reserving the right to paint over anything that wasn’t properly done.

One of the guest painters was Larry Cole, the son of Marion Cole, on of four brothers who formed the Cole Brothers Air Show after World War II.

Larry, who used the fly with the air show and is now a commercial pilot, flew here from Texas and was at the Cole Brothers mural on the side of the Peoples National Bank building Saturday.

Another guest painter whose work wasn’t painted over was Sue Blake, retired Kewanee High School art teacher.

She spent several hours at the “Welcome to Kewanee” mural near the Amtrak station, and the prairie chicken atop the word “Kewanee” is her work.

A couple of the murals are to be upgraded. The large concrete slab that bears the “Welcome to Kewanee” and “Woodland Palace” murals will be painted and landscaped and a sidewalk will be installed.

And the poppies on the veterans memorial mural on the side of the VFW building will have LED lighting installed which will be dedicated on Veterans Day, and then be lighted day and night.